Requests for Due Process in requests to inspect criminal court files, filed with the Israeli Supreme Court

Conditions
have been established in the State of Israel over the past decade,
where the public is often denied access to records showing what a person
was indicted on, what a person was convicted of, what a person's
sentence is, and whether a person is held in prison pursuant to a duly
made arrest warrant. Such conditions are typical of tribunals of a
military dictatorship, but not of courts of a civil society. The
Requests for Due Process, now pending before the Supreme Court, are
precedential and are likely to create unique documentation relative to
public access to court records, restricted as it is in Israel today.

Figures:
The Requests to Inspect, now pending before the Israeli Supreme Court,
pertain to landmark criminal cases – Amos Baranes – whose murder
conviction was reversed, Roman Zadorov – whose murder conviction is
widely believed to be the outcome of false evidence and framing by
police, false prosecution, and false conviction, and the corruption
conviction of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - where duly made
verdict, sentence and arrest warrant records are yet to be discovered.

_____

OccupyTLV,
April 22 – Joseph Zernik, PhD, of Human Rights Alert (NGO), has filed
Requests for Due Process, relative to his Requests to Inspect Court
Files of the Israeli Supreme Court. [1]

Over
the past decade, public access to court records, a fundamental civil
right, has been drastically restricted in Israel. The public's right to
inspect court record is well-established for centuries as the
fundamental measure in the safeguard of integrity of the courts and the
legal profession. The restrictions on public access to court records
took place as part of a general revolution in administration of the
Israeli courts, including implementation of the Electronic Signature
Act, the implementation of new IT systems in the courts, the
promulgation of new regulations in the courts (pertaining to inspection
of court files and the office of the clerk), and the 2009 Judgment in
the petition Association of Civil Rights in Israel v Minister of Justice
(HCJ 5917/97). According to the new regulations, a person who wishes to
inspect a court file, must file a Request to Inspect, which is decided
by the same court.

The
Requests for Due Process originated in Requests to Inspect, which were
filed in the Supreme Court on March 23, 2015, pertaining to landmark
criminal court files. [2] In criminal cases, under
conditions which have been established over the past decade, the public
is denied access to records which ascertain what a person was indicted
on, what a person was convicted of, what a person's verdict is, and
whether a person is held in prison based on lawfully made arrest
warrant. Such conditions are typical of tribunals of a military
dictatorship, but of courts of a civil society.

No
final decision has been rendered yet on the Requests to Inspect.
However, it has already been established that responses by the parties
(presumably – objections) and interim decisions of the Supreme Court
have not been duly served on the Requester. Moreover, while the Supreme
Court's public access system permits public access to decisions, it does
not permit access to the responses. Therefore, the Requester is denied
access to responses by the parties on his Requests to Inspect, the right
to reply on such responses, or even the right to know their content.
The current Requests for Due Process claim that such conditions stand
contrary to the fundamentals of due process in deciding the Requests to
Inspect themselves.

The
current Requests to Inspect were filed as part of a survey of the right
to inspect court records in various courts in the State of Israel. It
is likely to be the most comprehensive survey of this kind conducted
over the past decade, if not the only one of its kind. The results show
that conduct of the Supreme Court, relative to Requests to Inspect is
not unique, but typical of other courts as well. Moreover, in the lower
courts, the Requester's access was often denied even to the decisions on
his Requests to Inspect. [3] In some cases, denial of a
party's access to the party's own file was also documented – conduct
that would be deemed serious violation of Human Rights. There is no
doubt that conduct of the courts, relative to public access to court
records, would be deemed an indicator of fundamental lack of integrity
of the Israeli courts.

Over
the past decade, corruption of government has reached unprecedented
level in Israel. OECD has recently established a committee to
investigate government corruption in the State of Israel and compliance
with OECD conventions to combat corruption. [4] With
it, it should be noted that the denial of access to court records is
particularly noticeable in cases pertaining to government corruption.

Corruption
of the courts and the legal profession is central to the failure of
efforts to combat government corruption in Israel. Conditions,
documented through the requests to inspect and other studies, are
indicative of systemic corruption of the Israeli courts over the past
decade:

The
UN Human Rights Council Periodic Report on Human Rights in the State of
Israel (2010) states “Lack of integrity in the electronic record
systems of the Supreme Court, the district courts and the detainees
courts in Israel”.

A
paper, titled “New fraudulent IT systems in the Israeli courts –
unannounced regime change?”, was accepted for presentation and
publication in the European Conference on Electronic Government
(ECEG2015), subject to international anonymous peer-review.

The
requests for Due Process in Requests to Inspect in the Supreme Court,
are likely to be precedential. Therefore, conduct of the Supreme Court
relative to the current Requests for Due Process in Request to Inspect,
as well as the Requests to Inspect themselves, will create unique
documentation, relative public access to court records, restricted as it
is in the Israeli courts today.

2015-04-22 "I shouldn't need to watch my tail" - Tel-Aviv judge conducts simulated court hearing, then hides the records...
==============================
In cases related to whistle-blowers of government corruption, the
Tel-Aviv courts are repeatedly shown to be a center for abuse of
whistle-blowers and protection of corruption. Here- in a case of Israel
Electric Company whistle-blower, a judge conducted simulated court
hearing. When caught in the act, she exploded, said she did not need to
watch her tail, and kicked everybody out. Later she created records,
which are no unlawfully hidden from public access...

11-12-10 Where should Occupy go next? Civil Disobedience in the footsteps of Thoreau and Gandhi!http:// www.scribd.com/doc/75348301/12-06-08 Courts and Judges as racketeering enterprises under RICO (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) - key element in the current financial crisishttp://www.scribd.com/doc/96504009/Secede! The US in its current form is simply unmanageable...

What did the experts say?

* דוח סייג לזכויות האדם נכלל בדוח התקופתי של האו"ם לגבי זכויות האדם בישראל (2013), בלוויית ההערה: "חוסר יושרה בכתבים האלקטרוניים של בית המשפט העליון, בתי המשפט המחוזיים, ובתי הדין למוחזקי משמורת בישראל".* The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations was incorporated into the 2010 Periodic Review Report regarding Humnan Rights in the United States, with the note: "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California".* The Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations was incorporated into the 2013 Periodic Review Report regarding Humnan Rights in Israel, with the note: "lack of integrity of the electronic records of the Supreme Court, the district courts and the detainees courts in Israel."

The United States

* "...it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history... where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases." Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School

* Los Angeles County is"the epicenter of the epidemic of real estate and mortgage fraud."FBI (2004)

* “…judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit."Prof David Burcham, Loyola Law School, LA (2000)

* “This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states… and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted.”Prof Erwin Chemerinksy, Irvine Law School (2000)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/239647129/The HRA submission was incorporated into the 2015 HRC Professional Staff Report on the United States with the note: :“HRA NGO recommended restoring the integrity of the IT systems of the courts, under accountability to the Congress, with the goal of making such systems as transparent as possible to the public at large.”

[2] Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission for the 2013 UPR of the State of Israel was incorporated into the UN Human Rights Council Professional Staff Report with the note: "Lack of integrity in the electronic record systems of the Supreme Court, the district courts and the detainees' courts in Israel".

2012-06-04 Human Right Alert's Submission; 2013 UPR of the State of Israel: Integrity, or lack thereof, of the

[3] Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission for the 2010 UPR of the United States was incorporated into the UN Human Rights Council Professional Staff Report with the note: "Corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."

2010-04-19 Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the

2010 Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States as incorporated into the UPR staff report:

[1] 10-10-01 United Nations Human Rights Council Records for 2010 Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States, where Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission was incorporated with a note referring to "corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/http://www.scribd.com/doc/108663259/